Upon Further Review: Carson Beck

[JD08]

Beck's 2023 was great, but 2024, not so much. I think too many people are seeing the TVD parallel, where he had a great 2021, then fell on his face. Add in elbow surgery and there's legitimate cause for concern.

Personally, I think the drop off for Beck was less about Beck and more about the coaching and supporting cast, but I'm still just cautiously optimistic.

 

[Lance Roffers]

I can see him being a top 4-5 QB in the ACC, sure. I think people have taken my comments about disliking watching him play as "so Emory is better?" He can be way better than what I'd project for Emory and still not a QB prospect I like to watch.

Through prior posts, I explain in some minor detail (below). And, because it's you and I appreciate your substantive insights greatly, I'm happy to engage further in what I hope to see from Dawson in setting up Beck. Again, that's the frustrating part: I'd hope someone as highly billed helps setup Dawson more than the other way around. No, it doesn't have to be at a Cam Ward level, either. But, get off your spot or make quicker decisions.

Before any dialogue, I'm happy to stipulate: he has a strong arm, he's played in important games, he's by far and away our seemingly best option. He immediately improves our team over what I anticipated a week ago. That said, like some others have encouraged of you, check out some of his other games. He often gets planted on a spot and becomes highly robotic sometimes.

View attachment 317710

View attachment 317711

Honestly, I think we are fairly aligned. He's an 8 at QB, rather than the 10 we had.

He does get stuck on a read at times. He's so good at seeing the picture the defense gives him, if his receivers don't see it the same, or he's wrong on the picture post-snap he gets stuck.

Also, no doubt he hit a slump mid-season.

If I'm making excuses, I say how much was put on him and how often his receivers screwed up. If I'm crucifying I say wasn't a great leader who got them on same page and elevated their games.

But in the end, even in a down year, the data all shows him as a top-10 QB in the country. Which puts him right there for best in the ACC in my mind.

The back-and-forth are discussions I truly enjoy, so I appreciate your perspective.

 

[Tempest]

Great write up. I expect it’ll be either Beck or Klubnik that has the most productive year in the ACC.

 

[SCarolina Ibis]

Honestly, I think we are fairly aligned. He's an 8 at QB, rather than the 10 we had.

He does get stuck on a read at times. He's so good at seeing the picture the defense gives him, if his receivers don't see it the same, or he's wrong on the picture post-snap he gets stuck.

Also, no doubt he hit a slump mid-season.

If I'm making excuses, I say how much was put on him and how often his receivers screwed up. If I'm crucifying I say wasn't a great leader who got them on same page and elevated their games.

But in the end, even in a down year, the data all shows him as a top-10 QB in the country. Which puts him right there for best in the ACC in my mind.

The back-and-forth are discussions I truly enjoy, so I appreciate your perspective.

Have you watched any of his film from 23? Because if you've got him at an 8 now, what do you think you would have had him after 23?

Also, how should we view your grades?
Do they represent expected performance?
Are they more of a year in review grade, based on that season's performance?
Seems I'm leaving out the obvious/correct answer.

Where I'm going with this is.. Let's say you watched his 23 film and you graded him at 8.9. Would that have any effect on the grade you gave him after watching his 24 film?

 

[Lance Roffers]

Have you watched any of his film from 23? Because if you've got him at an 8 now, what do you think you would have had him after 23?

Also, how should we view your grades?
Do they represent expected performance?
Are they more of a year in review grade, based on that season's performance?
Seems I'm leaving out the obvious/correct answer.

Where I'm going with this is.. Let's say you watched his 23 film and you graded him at 8.9. Would that have any effect on the grade you gave him after watching his 24 film?

I'm expecting him to be an 8 grade QB next year. Think of 5 as an average P4 QB. 6 is a solid starting P4 QB.

7 is a guy you can win a title with if everything else is perfect.

8 is an all-conference.

9 is a guy who can go to New York for Heisman ceremony. Maybe All-American.

10 is a Heisman talent, All-American QB.

His numbers shouldn't change your grade much, as you're evaluating performance and what he specifically brings.

Beck needs a better situation to get it right than Ward does. I comped him to Caleb Williams and called him a 10 before he came to Miami because that was what you saw on film. Beck isn't that.

He's an all-conference QB (he still has never been 1st team because he had a 10 in his conference 2023).

You can go to the playoffs with Beck at Miami. I graded him very close to Mateer, whom I also gave an 8, but I take Beck because he's done it vs. better competition whereas Mateer was playing a G5 schedule.

 

[OrangeBowlMagic]

Literally anyone with one occasionally firing brain cell knew this would be a home run for Miami and essentially the ideal outcome, but once it started being discussed and I saw how many people said "Hard pass", or "Meh", I knew for sure this would be a match made in heaven. Health permitting (and I will admit this is a big part of the equation), the offense is going to be lights out, again.

 

[Phydeaux]

Beck in a nutshell
Bowers and mccon̈key elevated his game 2 years ago
Now, w 2 SEC years under his belt
Can he elevate the U wrs and tes

 

[Memnon]

I'm seeing a lot of excuses being made on behalf of Beck, which is to be expected, but since no one else will, I guess I have to be the bad guy once again...

I just have some questions (sacrilegious I know), how come a guy who is supposed to be a projected 1st rounder & potential Heisman candidate, played his 3 worst games against the 3 best Defenses he faced this season??

Vs Ole Miss - 20/31 186yds 0TD's 1INTs
Vs Texas (Game 1) - 23/41 175yds 0TD's & 3INTs
Vs Kentucky - 15/24 160yds 0TD's

So we're blaming all his poor play on his OL & WR's?

How about this Sack? This on the OL? Not enough time? I distinctly remember quite a few on the board blaming the majority of the Sacks that Cam took this year on Cam holding onto the ball too long, so is that the same in this case or nah?

Or this one? OL?

What about throwing 9 picks in 4 game stretch?

All on the WR's?

He had enough time on this one no?

What about these?

We sweeping this under the rug or..?

There's also questions about the decision making.

UGA drives down to the 8yd line in the 3rd quarter, down by 9. It's 3rd & Goal, what does Beck do? Throw one of them patented check downs so many crave for.
Good decision right? Well, considering the circumstances, maybe not...

I mean he has Dillon Bell on the outside left hashes running a quick Out & has the actual TD read with Lawson Luckie (#7) running the 4 route from the Y. If Beck "holds onto the ball longer ", the TE crosses the LB's face & he's uncovered with at least 7yds of space in the End zone.

Sure, he made the safe play while in the Red Zone & down a score & FG in the 3rd quarter, so I guess he gets a Golf clap for that.. Idk, I kinda would prefer the QB in that situation try to go for a TD, but apparently not.

Then there's that whole Kentucky fiasco, but I won't get into that...

Is it all concerning that Beck was 16/35 (45%) on his Deep ball (passes above 20yds on air & beyond)?

Is it all concerning that Beck was 1,481yds 7TD's & 7INT's at 60%cmp vs the AP top 25 this season?

I know we're not holding Beck to the same standard we did Cam... (Wait, why aren't we doing that again?), but, at what point does it get asked that if Beck played worse with lesser talent around him this season, where are the expectations coming from that he's going to play better this season with seemingly less talent around him again?

I've seen quite a bit, he didn't have Bowers, or McConkey & their run game wasn't as good... Right... Is he going to have Bowers & McConkey at Miami? And I know alotta people THINK our run game will be perfectly fine without Martinez, but is it not a legitimate question to ask where the run game will stand without Martinez, considering many seem to believe that the run game will be an important factor in Beck's projected improved play?

Then there's the whole Bama ordeal...

It seems Beck is being credited for almost bringing UGA back in the Bama game. I also seem to remember that many blasted Cam for digging us in the hole in the VA Tech & Cal games. So that only leads to me another one of them forbidden questions... Did Beck have anything to do with Bama having the lead in the first place? Did he "dig UGA in a hole"??

I apologize in advance if I made anyone have any thoughts they weren't supposed to have in even bringing up any of these questions. I'm almost certain exactly how this will be met, but if you look at it on the brightside, I'm giving a lot of you plenty of ammunition to carpet bomb me during the season when we go 12-0 & secure the #1 seed in the playoffs.

But then again...

 

[407cane]

Literally anyone with one occasionally firing brain cell knew this would be a home run for Miami and essentially the ideal outcome, but once it started being discussed and I saw how many people said "Hard pass", or "Meh", I knew for sure this would be a match made in heaven. Health permitting (and I will admit this is a big part of the equation), the offense is going to be lights out, again.

I think a big problem for this board over the next 8 months will be people thinking that our offense has to be as good this coming year for us to have success.

If Hetherman is even remotely competent, we'll have a better overall team and record than we did this past year, even if our offense is top 10/15 range and not #1

 

[Phydeaux]

Obviously forgotten
Beck. During his DOWN year
Played
Clemson
Bama
Texas
Ole Miss
Florida
GaTech

Good bad indifferent
That's a quality schedule
10-2

 

[OrangeBowlMagic]

I think a big problem for this board over the next 8 months will be people thinking that our offense has to be as good this coming year for us to have success.

If Hetherman is even remotely competent, we'll have a better overall team and record than we did this past year, even if our offense is top 10/15 range and not #1

I’ve said this for years on this board. If people are too incompetent to understand, don’t waste your time.

Nobody has the #1 offense and defense. If you’re ~Top 20 in both, you’re likely in the conversation for the best team in the country.

We won’t have the #1 offense in the country. That’s fine. We all literally just saw what happens when you pair the #1 offense with the #70 or so defense. It doesn’t work. It didn’t work.

Get into the top 25 on defense and have some regression on offense and stay very good, and that’s plenty good enough.

The $1M question is can we get to that range on defense? We’ll see.

 

[407cane]

I’ve said this for years on this board. If people are too incompetent to understand, don’t waste your time.

Nobody has the #1 offense and defense. If you’re ~Top 20 in both, you’re likely in the conversation for the best team in the country.

We won’t have the #1 offense in the country. That’s fine. We all literally just saw what happens when you pair the #1 offense with the #70 or so defense. It doesn’t work. It didn’t work.

Get into the top 25 on defense and have some regression on offense and stay very good, and that’s plenty good enough.

The $1M question is can we get to that range on defense? We’ll see.

agreed. I do think we see a lift because there's precedent for scenarios like ours to jump heavy in the first season. Our issue is alignment, communication, and fundamentals - not talent or physicality, which would take time to develop.

Would be shocked if we don't see a massive jump. It also helps we're not playing NFL QB's McCord and Shough again

 

[grover]

I'm seeing a lot of excuses being made on behalf of Beck, which is to be expected, but since no one else will, I guess I have to be the bad guy once again...

I just have some questions (sacrilegious I know), how come a guy who is supposed to be a projected 1st rounder & potential Heisman candidate, played his 3 worst games against the 3 best Defenses he faced this season??

Vs Ole Miss - 20/31 186yds 0TD's 1INTs
Vs Texas (Game 1) - 23/41 175yds 0TD's & 3INTs
Vs Kentucky - 15/24 160yds 0TD's

So we're blaming all his poor play on his OL & WR's?

View attachment 317760

How about this Sack? This on the OL? Not enough time? I distinctly remember quite a few on the board blaming the majority of the Sacks that Cam took this year on Cam holding onto the ball too long, so is that the same in this case or nah?

View attachment 317761

Or this one? OL?

What about throwing 9 picks in 4 game stretch?

All on the WR's?

View attachment 317762View attachment 317764

He had enough time on this one no?

What about these?

View attachment 317767

View attachment 317768

We sweeping this under the rug or..?

There's also questions about the decision making.

UGA drives down to the 8yd line in the 3rd quarter, down by a 9. It's 3rd & Goal, what does Beck do? Throw one of them patented check downs so many crave for.
Good decision right? Well, considering the circumstances, maybe not...

View attachment 317770

I mean he has Dillon Bell on the outside left hashes running a quick Out & has the actual TD read with Lawson Luckie (#7) running the 4 route from the Y. If Beck "holds onto the ball longer ", the TE crosses LB's face & he uncovered with at least 7yds of space in the End zone.

Sure, he made the safe play while in the Red Zone & down a score & FG in the 3rd quarter, so I guess he gets a Golf clap for that.. Idk, I kinda would prefer the QB in that situation try to go for a TD, but apparently not.

Then there's that whole Kentucky fiasco, but I won't get into that...

Is it all concerning that Beck was 16/35 (45%) on his Deep ball (passes above 20yds on air & beyond)?

Is it all concerning that Beck was 1,481yds 7TD's & 7INT's at 60%cmp vs the AP top 25 this season?

I know we're not holding Beck to the same standard we did Cam... (Wait, why aren't we doing that again?), but, at what point does it get asked that if Beck played worse with lesser talent around him this season, where are the expectations coming from that he's going to play better this season with seemingly less talent around him again?

I've seen quite a bit, he didn't have Bowers, or McConkey & their run game wasn't as good... Right... Is he going to have Bowers & McConkey at Miami? And I know alotta people THINK our run game will be perfectly fine without Martinez, but is it not a legitimate question to ask where the run game will stand without Martinez, considering many seem to believe that the run game will be an important factor in Beck's projected improved play?

Then there's the whole Bama ordeal...

It seems Beck is being credited for almost bringing UGA back in the Bama game. I also seem to remember that many blasted Cam for digging us in the hole in the VA Tech & Cal games. So that only leads to me another one of them forbidden questions... Did Beck have anything to do with Bama having the lead in the first place? Did he "dig UGA in a hole"??

I apologize in advance if I made anyone have any thoughts they weren't supposed to have in even bringing up any of these questions. I'm almost certain exactly how this will be met, but if you look at it on the brightside, I'm giving a lot of you plenty of ammunition to carpet bomb me during the season when we go 12-0 & secure the #1 seed in the playoffs.

But then again...

You have every reason to be concerned. Here's how I rationalize his weaknesses...

I looked at several of Cam's poor performances at WSU, which went 5-7 under him in 2023, and he made some abysmal plays. I honestly felt taking Howard was an equivalent option. He even made several face palm plays for us this year, too. But overall he was incredible. I think we'll see a similar step up by Beck.

Why? I now believe I didn't give enough credit our OL and receivers. Because Cam was significantly better at Miami than he was at Wash State in terms of his overall consistency and ball control. I "believe" Beck will prove the same with our OL and receivers (I'm counting on a portal WR1). But you aren't wrong that the risk is there that teams have diagnosed his weaknesses and he won't be able to compensate for them.

The thing is, tell me a QB in the portal who doesn't have equivalent or worse weaknesses, outside of Mateer who didn't play even close to the same level of competition? So the reason I'm celebrating isn't because I think Beck is a sure-fire NFL first rounder (though Vegas seems to think he is). It's because he's better than the other options out there and that he's put his team in position to win a lot of games at the highest level in college. Also, I expect a fallback to Earth because there just aren't a lot of Cams running around, maybe 1 a year, I would argue 1 every 3-5.

 

[Miami04]

I'm seeing a lot of excuses being made on behalf of Beck, which is to be expected, but since no one else will, I guess I have to be the bad guy once again...

I just have some questions (sacrilegious I know), how come a guy who is supposed to be a projected 1st rounder & potential Heisman candidate, played his 3 worst games against the 3 best Defenses he faced this season??

Vs Ole Miss - 20/31 186yds 0TD's 1INTs
Vs Texas (Game 1) - 23/41 175yds 0TD's & 3INTs
Vs Kentucky - 15/24 160yds 0TD's

So we're blaming all his poor play on his OL & WR's?

View attachment 317760

How about this Sack? This on the OL? Not enough time? I distinctly remember quite a few on the board blaming the majority of the Sacks that Cam took this year on Cam holding onto the ball too long, so is that the same in this case or nah?

View attachment 317761

Or this one? OL?

What about throwing 9 picks in 4 game stretch?

All on the WR's?

View attachment 317762View attachment 317764

He had enough time on this one no?

What about these?

View attachment 317767

View attachment 317768

We sweeping this under the rug or..?

There's also questions about the decision making.

UGA drives down to the 8yd line in the 3rd quarter, down by 9. It's 3rd & Goal, what does Beck do? Throw one of them patented check downs so many crave for.
Good decision right? Well, considering the circumstances, maybe not...

View attachment 317770

I mean he has Dillon Bell on the outside left hashes running a quick Out & has the actual TD read with Lawson Luckie (#7) running the 4 route from the Y. If Beck "holds onto the ball longer ", the TE crosses the LB's face & he's uncovered with at least 7yds of space in the End zone.

Sure, he made the safe play while in the Red Zone & down a score & FG in the 3rd quarter, so I guess he gets a Golf clap for that.. Idk, I kinda would prefer the QB in that situation try to go for a TD, but apparently not.

Then there's that whole Kentucky fiasco, but I won't get into that...

Is it all concerning that Beck was 16/35 (45%) on his Deep ball (passes above 20yds on air & beyond)?

Is it all concerning that Beck was 1,481yds 7TD's & 7INT's at 60%cmp vs the AP top 25 this season?

I know we're not holding Beck to the same standard we did Cam... (Wait, why aren't we doing that again?), but, at what point does it get asked that if Beck played worse with lesser talent around him this season, where are the expectations coming from that he's going to play better this season with seemingly less talent around him again?

I've seen quite a bit, he didn't have Bowers, or McConkey & their run game wasn't as good... Right... Is he going to have Bowers & McConkey at Miami? And I know alotta people THINK our run game will be perfectly fine without Martinez, but is it not a legitimate question to ask where the run game will stand without Martinez, considering many seem to believe that the run game will be an important factor in Beck's projected improved play?

Then there's the whole Bama ordeal...

It seems Beck is being credited for almost bringing UGA back in the Bama game. I also seem to remember that many blasted Cam for digging us in the hole in the VA Tech & Cal games. So that only leads to me another one of them forbidden questions... Did Beck have anything to do with Bama having the lead in the first place? Did he "dig UGA in a hole"??

I apologize in advance if I made anyone have any thoughts they weren't supposed to have in even bringing up any of these questions. I'm almost certain exactly how this will be met, but if you look at it on the brightside, I'm giving a lot of you plenty of ammunition to carpet bomb me during the season when we go 12-0 & secure the #1 seed in the playoffs.

But then again...

I agree with all of this but for me it was Emory or Beck and Beck was the best option out there besides Mateer

 

[itsdolphhh]

I'm seeing a lot of excuses being made on behalf of Beck, which is to be expected, but since no one else will, I guess I have to be the bad guy once again...

I just have some questions (sacrilegious I know), how come a guy who is supposed to be a projected 1st rounder & potential Heisman candidate, played his 3 worst games against the 3 best Defenses he faced this season??

Vs Ole Miss - 20/31 186yds 0TD's 1INTs
Vs Texas (Game 1) - 23/41 175yds 0TD's & 3INTs
Vs Kentucky - 15/24 160yds 0TD's

So we're blaming all his poor play on his OL & WR's?

View attachment 317760

How about this Sack? This on the OL? Not enough time? I distinctly remember quite a few on the board blaming the majority of the Sacks that Cam took this year on Cam holding onto the ball too long, so is that the same in this case or nah?

View attachment 317761

Or this one? OL?

What about throwing 9 picks in 4 game stretch?

All on the WR's?

View attachment 317762View attachment 317764

He had enough time on this one no?

What about these?

View attachment 317767

View attachment 317768

We sweeping this under the rug or..?

There's also questions about the decision making.

UGA drives down to the 8yd line in the 3rd quarter, down by 9. It's 3rd & Goal, what does Beck do? Throw one of them patented check downs so many crave for.
Good decision right? Well, considering the circumstances, maybe not...

View attachment 317770

I mean he has Dillon Bell on the outside left hashes running a quick Out & has the actual TD read with Lawson Luckie (#7) running the 4 route from the Y. If Beck "holds onto the ball longer ", the TE crosses the LB's face & he's uncovered with at least 7yds of space in the End zone.

Sure, he made the safe play while in the Red Zone & down a score & FG in the 3rd quarter, so I guess he gets a Golf clap for that.. Idk, I kinda would prefer the QB in that situation try to go for a TD, but apparently not.

Then there's that whole Kentucky fiasco, but I won't get into that...

Is it all concerning that Beck was 16/35 (45%) on his Deep ball (passes above 20yds on air & beyond)?

Is it all concerning that Beck was 1,481yds 7TD's & 7INT's at 60%cmp vs the AP top 25 this season?

I know we're not holding Beck to the same standard we did Cam... (Wait, why aren't we doing that again?), but, at what point does it get asked that if Beck played worse with lesser talent around him this season, where are the expectations coming from that he's going to play better this season with seemingly less talent around him again?

I've seen quite a bit, he didn't have Bowers, or McConkey & their run game wasn't as good... Right... Is he going to have Bowers & McConkey at Miami? And I know alotta people THINK our run game will be perfectly fine without Martinez, but is it not a legitimate question to ask where the run game will stand without Martinez, considering many seem to believe that the run game will be an important factor in Beck's projected improved play?

Then there's the whole Bama ordeal...

It seems Beck is being credited for almost bringing UGA back in the Bama game. I also seem to remember that many blasted Cam for digging us in the hole in the VA Tech & Cal games. So that only leads to me another one of them forbidden questions... Did Beck have anything to do with Bama having the lead in the first place? Did he "dig UGA in a hole"??

I apologize in advance if I made anyone have any thoughts they weren't supposed to have in even bringing up any of these questions. I'm almost certain exactly how this will be met, but if you look at it on the brightside, I'm giving a lot of you plenty of ammunition to carpet bomb me during the season when we go 12-0 & secure the #1 seed in the playoffs.

But then again...

*cricket sounds*

 

[Memnon]

You have every reason to be concerned. Here's how I rationalize his weaknesses...

I looked at several of Cam's poor performances at WSU, which went 5-7 under him in 2023, and he made some abysmal plays. I honestly felt taking Howard was an equivalent option. He even made several face palm plays for us this year, too. But overall he was incredible. I think we'll see a similar step up by Beck.

Why? I now believe I didn't give enough credit our OL and receivers. Because Cam was significantly better at Miami than he was at Wash State in terms of his overall consistency and ball control. I "believe" Beck will prove the same with our OL and receivers (I'm counting on a portal WR1). But you aren't wrong that the risk is there that teams have diagnosed his weaknesses and he won't be able to compensate for them.

The thing is, tell me a QB in the portal who doesn't have equivalent or worse weaknesses, outside of Mateer who didn't play even close to the same level of competition? So the reason I'm celebrating isn't because I think Beck is a sure-fire NFL first rounder (though Vegas seems to think he is). It's because he's better than the other options out there and that he's put his team in position to win a lot of games at the highest level in college. Also, I expect a fallback to Earth because there just aren't a lot of Cams running around, maybe 1 a year, I would argue 1 every 3-5.

Did he put his team in position to win a lot of games at the highest level, or did his team put him in position to win a lot of games at the highest level?

The biggest difference between Cam pre-Miami & Beck pre-Miami, is actual ability.

Cam showed when he was at Incarnate Word the kind of QB he was. His actual ability stood out, despite not having much talent around him.

Beck has largely been protected playing on teams that were loaded on both sides of the ball for the majority of his college career. He didn't have to do much heavy lifting, he didn't have to elevate anyone round him, they were already upper-echelon NFL caliber players, all he had to do was not turn the ball over. But as soon as he lost many of those pieces he didn't look half as good as he did with them.

Cam was already one of the most highly sought after QB's on the market when he first hit the Portal from IW. He went to Wash ST because of his relationship & loyalty to Eric Morris, who took a chance on him & gave him an opportunity. But, he also visited Ole Miss, TTech, FSU, Tennessee & USC whole host of other teams before he decided to follow Morris to Wash ST. Meaning, Cam didn't just spawn into the QB he is once he got to Miami, he was already great & many Offensive minded Coaches were after him.

With Cam, the only people who were in the dark about his talent was Miami fans for obvious reasons.

With Beck, it's a lot of he looked good when everyone else was also really good around him. Out of all the games I've watched of Beck (& it's a lot..), I can genuinely only point to about 3 maybe 4 where he clearly elevated above the confines of the talent surrounding him & played great as the primary catalyst for UGA. He's mostly been carried by others during his time at UGA, he wasn't the one doing the carrying.

So now he gets to Miami, coming off a bad elbow, with an already questionable arm & won't have 266rec 3,798ds in receiving & 1,000yds rushing, but he's just going to play great anyway?

It keeps getting said that he doesn't have to be Cam & the Offense doesn't have to be as good, right, got it. So, what exactly is he supposed to be doing here? Game manager? Beck doesn't have to nor should be expected to do it all by himself right? Well, WHO is supposed to be doing all heavy lifting this season?

Are yall banking on CJ Daniels to elevate to Justin Jefferson status? He's a nice WR, but I would imagine he's not the kinda WR that should be expected to take on the brunt of the playmaking. Especially in Dawson's Offense, which is built upon the Slot getting the majority of the target-shares. Actually, I'd argue the only reason we really saw Jacolby George & Isaiah Horton elevate their games was because of Cam looking for them & deciding to feed them into the Offense.

A less talented QB isn't going to scan the field & look for those money routes with JG & IsHort as much as Cam did. And judging by the commentary that hovered over Cam all season, yall wouldn't want him to. That's where the whole "take the Checkdown!" argument comes with unintended consequences...

I guess all I'm trying to figure out is, if on one hand yall are saying we don't need the QB to be that good, just need the supporting cast to be better, but then on the other hand, acknowledging that the supporting cast is objectively & sizeably worse, while simultaneously expecting similar if not even better results, then what exactly are yall actually saying?

 

[Memnon]

I agree with all of this but for me it was Emory or Beck and Beck was the best option out there besides Mateer

Emory was never going to start a single game for this team next season.

It was moreso Luke Nickel or whoever we could get from the Portal.

Dawson did not & has not had one ounce of faith in Emory regardless of what anyone may have said or been told. His actions shown that any time Emory was in a game against P5/P5 Defenses he wanted absolutely nothing to do with him as a QB.

There was no scenario (other than injury), in which a Spring & Fall camp would've resulted in Emory being the starter next season.

All that talk about Emory being the emergency #2 was just GreenTree propaganda.

 

[Calinative]

Is it all concerning that Beck was 16/35 (45%) on his Deep ball (passes above 20yds on air & beyond)?

Is it all concerning that Beck was 1,481yds 7TD's & 7INT's at 60%cmp vs the AP top 25 this season?

I know we're not holding Beck to the same standard we did Cam... (Wait, why aren't we doing that again?), but, at what point does it get asked that if Beck played worse with lesser talent around him this season, where are the expectations coming from that he's going to play better this season with seemingly less talent around him again?

I've seen quite a bit, he didn't have Bowers, or McConkey & their run game wasn't as good... Right... Is he going to have Bowers & McConkey at Miami? And I know alotta people THINK our run game will be perfectly fine without Martinez, but is it not a legitimate question to ask where the run game will stand without Martinez, considering many seem to believe that the run game will be an important factor in Beck's projected improved play?

Then there's the whole Bama ordeal...

It seems Beck is being credited for almost bringing UGA back in the Bama game. I also seem to remember that many blasted Cam for digging us in the hole in the VA Tech & Cal games. So that only leads to me another one of them forbidden questions... Did Beck have anything to do with Bama having the lead in the first place? Did he "dig UGA in a hole"??

I apologize in advance if I made anyone have any thoughts they weren't supposed to have in even bringing up any of these questions. I'm almost certain exactly how this will be met, but if you look at it on the brightside, I'm giving a lot of you plenty of ammunition to carpet bomb me during the season when we go 12-0 & secure the #1 seed in the playoffs.

I am not much of a fan of Beck, but don't view him nearly as bad as you do. I think mostly you just aren't a fan of pocket passers that don't really "create". Like your kind of pocket passer is a Brock Purdy, not a Jared Goff I'd feel like. Just in general a gunslinger type like Mahomes/Baker/Caleb... Which those are 3 of the better Qbs to come out recently so makes sense lol. But theres plenty of different types of Qbs that can have success especially at the college level. And Beck has literally already shown he can have success, even if it not BECAUSE of him.

I definitely don't think he should be a 1st round qb, but I won't be surprised if he is one, particularly after he has success here. I'd guess that this 2024 season hurt him bad enough that he's not going to go higher than like 5-10 even if he did have a great season here though. Obviously what you're pointing out is correct that his success here is basically going to entirely come down to whether he drastically reduces his turnover worthy plays by A) improving his decision making and B) Improving his play under pressure. Imo it entirely comes down to those 2 things. He threw way too many picks and was very bad under pressure.

However I do think he was probably top 2 or 3 Qbs to actually enter the portal, and ultimately that's all there really was to it. After we went for Mateer (and thus missed out on a couple that committed before he even entered) we basically had no better choice with the exception of maybe Mendoza. But I don't think mendoza was some superior prospect. I just viewed Mendoza as likely being better NILCost : performance. At the end of the day landing him was an absolute win, and I think he can be quite successful here especially if we can land another top WR in Spring Portal and *IF* our defense takes a leap that I think it is entirely possible for it to take.... then we can win as many or more games than we won last year. Ultimately we did see him in 2023 with a very good OC, Elite weapon(s), and a great defense what the result was.... Our goal is to copy that.

A big critique you are applying to him is that this year his 3 worst games were against the 3 best defenses he played (kentucky, texas, ole miss). Well first I'd probably say that statistically the best Pass D teams he played went: Texas > Bama > UTenn > Clemson > OIe Miss > Auburn > Florida > Kentucky. No doubt about it his performance against Texas was dog ****. The first half against Bama was not much better. There is zero defense of that. However if we ignore the Texas game and look at the next 3 most difficult defenses he really wasn't all that bad except in the first half against Bama where UGA started off terrible. And His best games this year were against Auburn, Tennessee, and Clemson. Those were the 3rd, 4th, and 6th best pass defenses he played. Basically he had 4.5 Bad to Dog **** games, and 5.5 Good to great games this year whereas In 2023 he only had like 2 bad games....

And if we apply that to 2023 the best statistical pass defenses he played were FSU > Alabama > Ole Miss > UTenn > South Carolina > Auburn. In the top 3-4 he faced he fared quite well. Combined stats these 4 games are: 76/102 = 74%, 1050 Yds, 7 TDs, 1 INT, 118 QB Rating, and 11.23 AY/A Which is excellent. Sure there is no way on earth were going to be able to give him a stud like Bowers, but he basically had 2 weapons in 2023 and 0 weapons in 2024. If we can give him 4-5 really good and maybe one great weapon, we can definitely set him up for success.

#1 Make better decisions
#2 Not fall apart under pressure.

 

[Memnon]

I am not much of a fan of Beck, but don't view him nearly as bad as you do. I think mostly you just aren't a fan of pocket passers that don't really "create". Like your kind of pocket passer is a Brock Purdy, not a Jared Goff I'd feel like. Just in general a gunslinger type like Mahomes/Baker/Caleb... Which those are 3 of the better Qbs to come out recently so makes sense lol. But theres plenty of different types of Qbs that can have success especially at the college level. And Beck has literally already shown he can have success, even if it not BECAUSE of him.

I definitely don't think he should be a 1st round qb, but I won't be surprised if he is one, particularly after he has success here. I'd guess that this 2024 season hurt him bad enough that he's not going to go higher than like 5-10 even if he did have a great season here though. Obviously what you're pointing out is correct that his success here is basically going to entirely come down to whether he drastically reduces his turnover worthy plays by A) improving his decision making and B) Improving his play under pressure. Imo it entirely comes down to those 2 things. He threw way too many picks and was very bad under pressure.

However I do think he was probably top 2 or 3 Qbs to actually enter the portal, and ultimately that's all there really was to it. After we went for Mateer (and thus missed out on a couple that committed before he even entered) we basically had no better choice with the exception of maybe Mendoza. But I don't think mendoza was some superior prospect. I just viewed Mendoza as likely being better NILCost : performance. At the end of the day landing him was an absolute win, and I think he can be quite successful here especially if we can land another top WR in Spring Portal and *IF* our defense takes a leap that I think it is entirely possible for it to take.... then we can win as many or more games than we won last year. Ultimately we did see him in 2023 with a very good OC, Elite weapon(s), and a great defense what the result was.... Our goal is to copy that.

A big critique you are applying to him is that this year his 3 worst games were against the 3 best defenses he played (kentucky, texas, ole miss). Well first I'd probably say that statistically the best Pass D teams he played went: Texas > Bama > UTenn > Clemson > OIe Miss > Auburn > Florida > Kentucky. No doubt about it his performance against Texas was dog ****. The first half against Bama was not much better. There is zero defense of that. However if we ignore the Texas game and look at the next 3 most difficult defenses he really wasn't all that bad except in the first half against Bama where UGA started off terrible. And His best games this year were against Auburn, Tennessee, and Clemson. Those were the 3rd, 4th, and 6th best pass defenses he played. Basically he had 4.5 Bad to Dog **** games, and 5.5 Good to great games this year whereas In 2023 he only had like 2 bad games....

And if we apply that to 2023 the best statistical pass defenses he played were FSU > Alabama > Ole Miss > UTenn > South Carolina > Auburn. In the top 3-4 he faced he fared quite well. Combined stats these 4 games are: 76/102 = 74%, 1050 Yds, 7 TDs, 1 INT, 118 QB Rating, and 11.23 AY/A Which is excellent. Sure there is no way on earth were going to be able to give him a stud like Bowers, but he basically had 2 weapons in 2023 and 0 weapons in 2024. If we can give him 4-5 really good and maybe one great weapon, we can definitely set him up for success.

#1 Make better decisions
#2 Not fall apart under pressure.

Beck has shown he can have success on the college level & not necessarily because of him, so WHO is the one that's supposed to take up the mantle of that responsibility this upcoming season?

And how you can make an argument by saying, if you ignore Texas? WHY WOULD WE IGNORE THE TEXAS GAME?

And again, that's a parlor trick of moving the goalposts by going by Pass Defense. The best 3 Defensive teams he played this year, Ole Miss, Texas & Kentucky. Bama did not have a better Defense than any of those teams & even if you want to try to say they did, he's literally the reason they lost to Bama.

Of course you don't view Beck as badly as I do. I don't view him bad at all, I just don't overrate him the way everyone else does. He gets more credit than he actually deserves & receives literally no blame for his porous play. That's the part I don't understand. Especially considering he's played on the most loaded rosters in recent CFB history.

I have no issue with pocket passers. I dont like pedestrian QB's who benefit from playing on loaded teams & then get hyped up as if they're something more than what they really are. QB play in today's era is a whole world's different from what it was 15-20 years ago. The best QB's are the ones who can thrive in uncomfortable situations & make plays when things aren't perfect.

If the only time you look good as a QB is when you have everything else going perfect around you, then that means you lack raw ability. And that lack of raw ability gets exposed once teams figure out how to make you uncomfortable through pass rush & coverages.

That's why a safe risk adverse QB, who doesn't take a lot of deep shots can still manage to throw 12 picks. Because when his inefficiencies aren't being hidden by conservative play calling, he's out there in the wild left to do it on his own. When that happened, he looked like a different player from when he had the protection of high caliber players to rely on.

These aren't wild improvisational gunslinger throws taking a chance down the field...

These are safe, routine regular system passes that are getting picked or batted down. So what's that say?

These weren't the WR ran the wrong route, or I didn't have enough protection miscues. These are just flat out bad throws within the confines of the same Offense that he ran when UGA was steamrolling over everybody the year prior, so what happened?

Same QB, same Offense, but worse results? How?

 

[YLCANE]

Those that aren’t high on beck are crazy imo
He’s going to be really really good imo
He wins 10 games if healthy w current roster
If we can get a WR in spring - and ANY improvement on D, we are in playoffs


Beck will be Heisman finalist
Book it